Bismillah. This is the 9th lesson on “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.
In constructing simple sentences in Bahasa Sug (which we will be discussing soon, in sha Allah), we need to know how NOUNS in a sentence are identified. There are, in fact, a number of noun markers that exists in Bahasa Sug. These are articles that let us know whether the one being identified as a subject or a direct object in a conversation is indeed a noun. In this lesson, we will introduce the first three Noun Markers: In, Hi and Hinda (as the name suggests, any words following these 3 markers are always considered to be “nouns”).
The Article “In”
The Tausug article “In” is the equivalent of the English articles “The” and “a/an”. It is almost always used before the “object” it is identifying (the noun). Article “In” is usually followed by improper nouns—nouns that are not absolutely identified or named—and can be used both for subjects and objects of the verb. Let’s see the sentence construction below:
As indicator of subject:
Báy
|
House
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In báy
|
The House
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In báy malingkat.
|
The House is beautiful.
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As indicator of direct object:
In báy
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The house
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Kiyta’ ku in báy.
|
I saw the house.
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The Tausug article “In” can also be used as the verb-to-be “is” in a sentence, such as:
Mastal
|
Teacher
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In mastal
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The teacher
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Siya in mastal.
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He is the teacher.
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And even as indicator of the “doer” of the verb:
Nagbayta’
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Told; (p.t. of bayta’, “tell”)
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…in nagbayta’ káku’…
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…the one who told me...
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Hi Ahmad in nagbayta’ káku’.
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Ahmad is the one who told me.
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(An exception: in this example, the article “In” follows a verb instead of a noun)
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It will be observed, that the role of the article “In” is greatly affected by the kind of VERBS that are being used in a sentence. We will be discussing this in our upcoming Lessons in Tausug Verbs (Lesson 12 onwards) in sha Allah.
Articles “Hi” and “Hinda”
Another pair of Tausug articles important to be learned is the two Personal Noun Markers: “Hi” and its plural form, “Hinda”. They have almost the same function as the article “In”—identifying nouns either as subjects, objects or doers of the verb. But these two articles are used only with Proper names, particularly names of people (including the ‘people-callings’ like mother, father, uncle, etc.).
